In America, we can paint a Hitler mustache on the president’s likeness without fear of the government’s wrath. But in Jordan, a poem critical of the king can get a writer jailed.

The article is a quick and far-from-exhaustive global free speech survey to supplement Warren Richey’s cover story on free speech in America. Richey’s piece is a great and timely read: it operates both in the wake of the Florida preacher’s Quran burning threats last month and in anticipation for the Court’s hearing arguments in Snyder v. Phelps this coming Wednesday.

Hugo M. Pfaltz Jr. likes to say that in 12 years of appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, he never failed to come through for the people he represented. “Each time my motion has been approved without dissent,” he says. Granted, Pfaltz does not appear before the justices to argue controversial matters of constitutional law. Instead, for the past dozen years he has closed a session of the Supreme Court by moving that a group of attorneys accompanying him be admitted to practice before its bar.

For this story, I joined the ABA’s Senior Lawyers Division annual Memorial Day trip to Washington, DC, to report on their getting sworn into the Supreme Court bar. The several dozen lawyers in the group came from all over the country for a chance to stand before the justices, and it was my honor to highlight the experience.